David Cameron yesterday committed
Britain to 20 years of lavish aid spending – as figures revealed that
other developed countries are slashing their aid budgets to focus on
helping their own people.

Speaking at a United Nations aid
conference in the impoverished West African state of Liberia, the Prime
Minister called on world leaders to back a new target of ending global
poverty by 2030.

The goal suggests Mr Cameron’s
controversial target to spend 0.7 per cent of Britain’s income on
foreign aid will have to be maintained for a generation.

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David Cameron was greeted by schoolchildren as he arrived at Roberts international airport in Monrovia , Liberia on the latest leg of his tour of Africa

The Prime Minister has refused to back down on his commitment to international aid, telling MPs that it forms just as important a part of his foreign policy as the military and security response to terrorism in North Africa.

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His comments come as figures show that seven out of ten developed countries are slashing their foreign aid budgets to focus on dealing with problems at home.

British aid spending will rise in April as the percentage of the country’s income spent on foreign aid rises from 0.56 per cent to hit the 0.7 per cent target for the first time.

The Prime Minister tweeted a picture of himself meeting schoolchildren in Liberia yesterday

This translates into an increase in
aid spending from £8.65billion this year to £11.3billion next year – a
rise of more than 30 per cent.

But figures released by the UN show that global aid fell by 4.5 per cent in 2011 as austerity hit developed countries.

Austria, Belgium, Greece, Japan and
Spain were among 16 of 23 developed countries cutting back. On average,
developed countries now spend only 0.31 per cent of their income on aid –
less than half the British target.

The figures, buried in the UN’s
annual report on the current round of Millennium Development Goals, will
pile pressure on Mr Cameron to drop his aid pledge and spend the
£2.65billion on services for people in this country.

Tory Cabinet ministers are pressing
the Prime Minister to relax the target to limit the need for cuts to
essential public services such as defence and policing.

Tory MP Peter Bone said: ‘British
people will simply not understand why we are increasing aid at a time
when other countries are cutting theirs.

‘It is madness for us to be borrowing more money to give away when families at home are struggling.

VIDEO David Cameron meets school children with the President in Liberia

‘The aid budget should have been
frozen at the level when we came into office instead of pursuing this
arbitrary target. No-one will argue with wanting to end world poverty,
but if the solution was more aid money we would have achieved it years
ago.

‘We should be focusing on opening up
our markets to allow these countries to trade.’ Opening yesterday’s
conference, which he co-chaired, Mr Cameron insisted aid money was
vital.

He added: ‘I’m co-chairing the panel
that is going to write the rules for aid and development for the world
for the next 20 years, and I think it’s very important we keep a focus
on eradicating extreme poverty – here in Liberia, one in ten children
don’t make it to the age of five – but I also think it’s important we
look at those things that keep countries poor: conflict, corruption,
lack of justice, lack of the rule of law.

‘Those things matter, as well as aid and money.’

Mr Cameron said he was ‘proud’ that Britain was meeting its aid pledges even if others were not.

Outlining the new targets, he said:
‘There should be a real focus on eradicating extreme poverty – that
should be our rallying cry. We can do it in our generation.’

n MR Cameron will host a top-level
summit at Chequers tomorrow to try to stop Afghanistan falling into the
hands of the Taliban after British troops leave in 2014.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his
Pakistani counterpart Asif Ali Zardari will travel to the Prime
Minister’s country residence for talks on how to stop Afghanistan
descending into violence.The talks begin tomorrow and are due to last until Monday.